Manually or automatically actuated closure operating mechanism lock

ABSTRACT

In a railroad hopper car, hopper door-operating means operable automatically between open and closed positions by ground-mounted door-actuating structure and/or opened by manually operated railroad car-mounted means, the door-operating mechanism including a crank mechanism and drive lever therefor rotatably mounted about a vertical axis of the car, said crank mechanism in the closed position being overcenter against a stop and being swingable past the overcenter position to the open door position, and pivotally mounted auxiliary lock bar means automatically positionable from an elevated out-of-way position to a horizontal position obstructing movement of the crank mechanism past the overcenter position, and vice versa with manual means for raising the lock bar to the inoperative position and lowering the same to the operative position, said manual means including a handwheel and gear means operable upon a cam element engageable with a push rod for pivoting the lock bar between raised inoperative and lowered operative positions.

United States Patent 72] Inventors Charles R. Radey Michigan City, Ind.; James J. Schuller, Dolton, Ill. [21] Appl. No. 838,713 [22] Filed July 2, 1969 [45] Patented Dec. 7, 1971 [73] Assignee Pullman Incorporated Chicago, Ill.

[54] MAN UALLY OR AUTOMATICALLY ACTUATED CLOSURE OPERATING MECHANISM LOCK 4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 105/241 C, 105/251, 105/286, 105/310, 105/313, 214/63 [51] Int. Cl B6ld 7/18, B6ld 7/26, B6ld 7/30 [50] Field of Search 105/241, 241 C, 250, 251, 286,296, 304, 309, 310, 313; 214/58, 63

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,470,149 10/1923 Davis 214/58 3,459,317 8/1969 Shaver 3,515,076 6/1970 Aquino ABSTRACT: In a railroad hopper car. hopper door-operating means operable automatically between open and closed positions by ground-mounted door-actuating structure and/or opened by manually operated railroad car-mounted means, the door-operating mechanism including a crank mechanism and drive lever therefor rotatably mounted about a vertical axis of the car, said crank mechanism in the closed position being overcenter against a stop and being swingable past the overcenter position to the open door position, and pivotally mounted auxiliary lock bar means automatically positionable from an elevated out-of-way position to a horizontal position obstructing movement of the crank mechanism past the overcenter position, and vice versa with manual means for raising the lock bar to the inoperative position and lowering the same to the operative position, said manual means including a handwheel and gear means operable upon a cam element engageable with a push rod for pivoting the lock bar between raised inoperative and lowered operative positions.

PATENTED DEC 7 197i SHEET 1 [IF 3 INVENTORS CHARLES R. RADE Y JAMES J SCHULLER PATENTEDUEB Hen 3.625159 SHEET 2 OF 3 INVENTORS CHARLES R. RADEY JAMES J. SCHULL ER BYW WM ATT'Y.

PATENTEDDEE n97:

SHEET 3 SF 3 IN VE N TORS CHARLES R. RADEY JAMES J. SCHULLER BY ATT'Y.

MANUALLY OR AUTOMATICALLY ACTUATED CLOSURE OPERATING MECHANISM LOCK SUMMARY This invenn'on relates to improvement in hopper dooroperating mechanism in a hopper car for movement of the hopper doors between open and closed positions. In particular, this invention relates to an improved hopper door-operating cranking mechanism as disclosed in the copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 598,440 filed Dec. 1, 1966, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,317 granted Aug. 5, 1969, of William R. Shaver, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, and to improvements in an auxiliary lock bar which is pivotally raised and lowered between lower operative positions preventing the crank mechanism from moving to the open position and to the raised or inoperative position for allowing the crank mechanism to swing to the open position, as disclosed in the copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 618,152 filed Feb. 23, 1967, of Herman A. Aquino, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,076 granted June 2, 1970, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. 1

It is, therefore, a general object of this invention to provide for an improved door-operating mechanism for a railroad hopper car which includes a crank mechanism and drive lever therefor mounted to rotation about a vertical axis of the car and adapted for engagement with a ground-mounted cam track attendant to opening and closing of the hopper doors and wherein there is provided manually operable lock means to prevent movement of the door-operating mechanism to the opened or hopper discharge position. A more specific object of this invention is to provide for an auxiliary lock bar that in a horizontal position prevents movement of the crank mechanism and its drive lever from moving from a closed position to an open position by means of an auxiliary lock bar which is pivotal from a horizontal locking position to an elevated unlocking or out-of-use position and manual means for operating cam means to pivot the lock bar from the lower inoperative position to the raised out-of-use position for movement of the drive lever to the door-opened position.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent from reference to the following description, attached drawings and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the railroad hopper car employing the novel door-operating mechanism;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the vehicle-mounted dooroperating mechanism and the ground-mounted cooperating door-operating mechanism;

FIG. 3 is a view of the vehicle-operating mechanism in an operating position;

FIG. 4 is another perspective view of the operation of the vehicle door-operating mechanism;

FIG. 5 is a partial side elevational view of the lock mechanism for the vehicle door-operating mechanism;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the clutching mechanism of the door-operating mechanism;

FIG. 7 is a partial top plan view of the door-operating mechanism mounted on the hopper vehicle; and

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the hopper vehicle and its door-operating mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference now to the drawings, there is shown a railroad hopper car 2, as seen in FIGS. 1, 7 and 8, and having sides 4 and side sills 7, ends 6, a center sill 8 and door-operating supporting structure 10 carrying door-operating mechanism 16 for operating the doors 14 of the car hoppers 12. The car 2 is movably supported on the trucks l8 and rides over the car wheel-engaging rails 20. The door-operating mechanism 16 is of the type disclosed in the aforesaid copending Shaver patent application. The door-operating mechanism 16 includes door-operating arms 22 connecting with the doors 14 and with the crank structure 24, as seen in FIGS. 7 and 8, having an upper crank 21, an intermediate crank 23 and a lower crank 25, the crank structure 24 being engaged with the overcenter crank stop means 27 when the-vehicle doors and the door-operating mechanism are in the closed-door position. Each crank structure 24 is connected by transfer links 26, one crank structure 24 fixedly supporting a drive lever 28 having cam follower rollers 29 and 29a and connected by shaft 28a to lower crank arm 25. The cam follower roller 29 of the drive lever 28 is positioned underneath the car and adapted for engagement with the drive lever engaging cam track means 30, as seen in FIG. 8. The further particulars of the door-operating mechanism 16 and the drive lever engaging cam truck means 30 are shown in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. application of Shaver.

The cam track means 30 cooperates with the door-operating mechanism 16 to open and close the hopper doors 14 as the car passes by the cam track means 30.

The door-operating mechanism in the closed-door position is in an overcenter position so that the upper crank 21 is against the stop means 27, as seen in FIG. 7, and when the crank arm 21 rotates away from the stop means 27, the

operating mechanism is in the door-open position as seen in FIG. 8. Additional or auxiliary lock means 31, as shown in FIGS. 2 through 5, and as disclosed in the aforesaid copending patent application of Aquino, prevents movement of the crank structure 24 of the door-operating mechanism 16 when the door-operating mechanism is in the closed-door overcenter position because should the door-operating mechanism somehow go past the overcenter position away from the stop means 27, the drive lever 28 would have its end carrying roller means 29 but against the auxiliary lock means 31 when the latter is down in the operative or locking position. The auxiliary lock bar means 31 is pivotal between down or horizontal locking or operative position and raised or unlocked or door mechanism releasing position and comprises a pivotal elongated lock bar 32 having a free end 33 for engagement or abutment with the end of the drive lever 28 to prevent its movement. The free end of the lock bar is provided with a chamfer surface or edge 34 which allows for the drive lever end carrying roller 29 to more quickly or to sooner clear the lock bar when it is being raised by the lock bar raising cam track 38 which is groundmounted. Adjacent the free end 33 of the lock bar 32 is mounted thereon the drive lever clearance member 35 which has a chamfer edge or surface 36 cooperative with the chamfer or edge 36a of the end of the drive lever 28 to permit clearance of the drive lever past the auxiliary lock bar 32 when the drive lever and its attendant crank mechanism are rotating from the door-opened position to the door-closed position where the crank mechanism had previously been placed in the door-opened position by the automatic or drive lever engaging ground-mounted cam track means 30 and is being closed by the manual drive means 46 (see FIG. 2). This condition is shown by FIGS. 4 and 5. The lock bar 32 is provided on its underside or undersurface with a ground-mounted cam track engaging cam member 37 having a V-shaped or sloped surface 37a which is engageable with the upwardly sloping surface 380 of a ground-mounted lock bar raising cam track 38 to pivot the lock bar from the down or operative position to the raised or inoperative position permitting unobstructed movement of the drive lever 28. Thus, the cam track 38 cooperates with the cam track means 30 to raise the lock bar to the out-of-way position whereby the cam track means 30 then can rotate the crank mechanism 24 for automatic opening of the doors 14. The pivot end 39 of the lock bar 32 is provided with pivot means 40 carried on bracket 41 mounted on car-mounted support 42 to allow vertical swinging movement of the lock bar 32 between operative and inoperative positions.

In addition to the crank structure 24 and the lock bar 32 being operated by ground-mounted cam track means 30 and 38, both the crank mechanism and the auxiliary lock bar may be operated manually by the manual drive means 46 as disclosed in the aforesaid copending application of Aquino. To

this end, the lock bar is provided with an upright back support 43 at its pivotal end. The horizontally extending floating push rod 44 has one end slidably abutting with support 43 and the opposite end 44a slidable through a push rod tube 45 carried by car support 42. The push rod end 44a is engageable with the car-mounted cam member 69 which is operated by the car-mounted hand-operated wheel 47 of the manual drive means 46. The transmission of power is from the wheel 47 to shaft 48, sprocket 49, sprocket chain 50, and clutch sprocket 51 to clutch unit 52 which, when in the manual opening drive position, drives lower sprocket 62, see FIG. 2, which in turn drives chain 63 and ultimately the cam member 69, as well as driving the stop means 27, see FIGS. 2 and 3, which operation will be further explained below.

The operation of the clutch unit 52 is as follows. The clutch unit 52 is provided with a clutch shifter arm 53 for raising and lowering the clutch 52 mounted on the clutch housing 54 having the housing bore 55 which is vertically reciprocal on crank arm drive shaft 56 fixedly attached to the crank arm 21. The crank arm drive shaft 56 has fixedly attached thereto at its upper end rectangular block or crank arm drive shaft clutch member 57. The housing 54 is provided with an upper rectangular slot or bore communicative with the housing bore 55 and couplable with the clutch member 57 for driving the upper crank arm 21. The housing 54 is also provided with a lower rectangular slot or bore communicative with the bore 55 which is slidably received about rectangular outer peripheral surface 61 of the rectangular rotatable sleeve 60 for lock bar and overcenter stop manual drive. The sprocket 62 is fixedly attached to the sleeve 60 and drive chain 63 in either direction depending on rotation of the wheel 47 to rotate stop sprocket 64 for rotation of stop finger or cam 65 fixedly mounted on stop shaft 27a, the stop cam 65 having a stop cam surface 66'engageable with the outer end of the crank arm 21 for movement of the latter. When the chain 63 is rotating, it engages the lock bar drive sprocket 67 which in turn also rotates shaft 68 with shaft 27a to rotate the cam member 69 having cam surface means 70 including an arcuate cam surface portion 71 and side sloped surface portions 72 and 73, surface 72 engaging the plunger or push rod 44, FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrating two pivotal positions of the auxiliary lock bar due to operation of the manual drive means. Thus, when the handwheel 47 of the manual drive means 46, as viewed in H0. 2, is rotated counterclockwise, the lock bar is manually lifted to the inoperative position and the stop cam 65 pushes the crank arm 21 overcenter to open the doors for manual discharge of the contents of the hopper when the clutch unit is shifted to the down position, see FIG. 6, where the clutch bore 59 engages the peripheral surface 61 of the sleeve 60. To manually close the hopper doors, the shifter arm 53 permits manual raising of the clutch unit 52 for engagement between clutch portions 58 and 57 to manually drive the crank arm 21 by rotation of the handwheel 47 clockwise which causes crank arm 21 to push against the stop cam 65 to rotate the sprocket chain 63 and operate cam member 69 to lower the auxiliary lock bar to the down or crank mechanism blocking or operative position to prevent rotation of the crank mechanism while rotation of the crank arm 21 in clockwise direction moves the door-operating mechanism and the doors thereby to the doorclosed position.

The coactive camming surfaces 36 and 36a of the lock bar and drive lever respectively permit passage of the drive lever from the open to closed-door positions should the auxiliary lock bar be in the down or operative position and the cam 69 is not rotating or is not being used on the particular car employment the manual drive shaft 68 and cam 69. The lower free end tapered edge of surface 34 of the auxiliary lock bar insures early clearance of the lock bar out of the path of the drive lever whether manual or automatic operation of the door-operating mechanism is employed.

As various changes could be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above descri tion or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be mterpre ed as lllustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is: 1. In a railroad hopper car, a door-operating mechanism for opening and closing the hopper doors including a crank means adapted for engagement with a ground-mounted cam track adapted to open and close the hopper car doors.

said crank means being provided with a car-mounted overcenter stop against which the crank means rests in the door-closed position of the door-operating mechanism,

lock means being mounted on the car for movement between an out-of-use or inoperative position to an operative position in the path of movement of the crank means for preventing movement of the latter to the dooropen position,

cam means carried by the car,

means engageable with the cam means and moving the lock means to the out-of-use position,

said lock means including a lock bar pivotally mounted for swinging movement about a horizontal axis from an elevated out-of-use position to a horizontal operative position in the path of movement of the crank means,

said means engageable with the cam means including a push rod mounted on the car and engageable with said lock bar and manual means including a manual drive structure operatively connected with the cam means for rotating same for engaging and moving the push rod into engagement with the bar attendant to pivoting the lock bar between horizontal operative position, blocking movement of the crank means, to an elevated inoperative position.

2. The invention according to claim 1, and

said crank means including a drive lever mounted for rotation about a vertical axis and engageable with the cam track.

3. The invention according to claim 1, and

said crank means including a crank arm engageable with said overcenter stop in the closed-door position of the door-operating mechanism.

4. The invention according to claim 1, and

said manual drive structure including a handwheel and transmission means operatively connected therewith,

said transmission means including a gear for rotatively connecting with cam means for rotation of the latter for movement of the push rod. 

1. In a railroad hopper car, a door-operating mechanism for opening and closing the hopper doors including a crank means adapted for engagement with a ground-mounted cam track adapted to open and close the hopper car doors, said crank means being provided with a car-mounted overcenter stop against which the crank means rests in the door-closed position of the door-operating mechanism, lock means being mounted on the car for movement between an outof-use or inoperative position to an operative position in the path of movement of the crank means for preventing movement of the latter to the door-open position, cam means carried by the car, means engageable with the cam means and moving the lock means to the out-of-use position, said lock means including a lock bar pivotally mounted for swinging movement about a horizontal axis from an elevated outof-use position to a horizontal operative position in the path of movement of the crank means, said means engageable with the cam means including a push rod mounted on the car and engageable with said lock bar and manual means including a manual drive structure operatively connected with the cam means for rotating same for engaging and moving the push rod into engagement with the bar attendant to pivoting the lock bar between horizontal operative position, blocking movement of the crank means, to an elevated inoperative position.
 2. The invention according to claim 1, and said crank means including a drive lever mounted for rotation about a vertical axis and engageable with the cam track.
 3. The invention according to claim 1, and said crank means including a crank arm engageable with said overcEnter stop in the closed-door position of the door-operating mechanism.
 4. The invention according to claim 1, and said manual drive structure including a handwheel and transmission means operatively connected therewith, said transmission means including a gear for rotatively connecting with cam means for rotation of the latter for movement of the push rod. 